All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 609
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Blog
The Mast Brothers Meltdown
For years, Mast Brothers, a brand of high-end, artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate, has proven to be an unlikely success story, making small batches of expensive chocolate bars from its humble operation in the heart of the hipster world—the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. But when Dallas-based food writer Scott Craig ...
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Blog
Is That Disposal a Discontinued Operation? SEC Staff Offer Views
SEC Associate Chief Accountant Barry Kanczuker says FASB’s new standard on when a particular disposal should be characterized as a discontinued operation isn’t always clear cut. Kanczuker says companies will have to apply judgment to what constitutes a relevant financial result; look at financial results that might be relevant to ...
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Blog
Some Costs of Corruption
Image: A recent Financial Times article says that non-U.S. corruption scandals have outpaced those which are U.S.-centric and, FT points out, the companies at the heart of these scandals fared pretty badly from their own transgressions. Inside, FCPA blogger Tom Fox examines the cases of Volkswagen, whose emissions fraud has ...
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Blog
Succession Planning: A Priority for Bank Chiefs in 2016
Standard Chartered has scored big by hiring HSBC veteran Simon Cooper to serve as the London-based company’s corporate and institutional banking head but, according to the Financial Times, Cooper’s departure from HSBC may be a sign the exec has grown impatient waiting to take over the British bank’s reigns. Cooper, ...
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Blog
New European Regulations Mean More Competition Between ‘Big Four’
New European regulations requiring companies to change auditors every 20 years have led to intense competition between the Big Four audit firms. Barclays, for instance has cut a 120-year relationship with PwC, and KPMG has been picked up as auditor for the British bank. The audit firm rotation continued at ...
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Blog
Using Social Media to Defend an FCPA Criminal Charge
Image: Social media has certainly changed the way we communicate. Just look at federal securities fraudster Martin Shkreli, known for his extreme social media use, who has continued the practice (not surprisingly) post-arrest. According to the New York Times, Shkreli posts selfie videos “as if the possibility of going to ...
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Article
It’s Time to Stop Thinking of Whistleblowers as “Nut Jobs”
A recent comment about whistleblowers largely being crank cases has raised the ugly notion that those who report wrongdoing are more often venting a personal grudge or prosecuting a baseless case, than actually raising a legitimate issue. But in this age of heightened governance concern, can such a cavalier attitude ...
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Blog
Bill Requires Disclosure of Board’s Cyber-Security Expertise
Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to ...
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Blog
SEC Offers View on Pension Measurement Considerations
Image: The SEC is open to the new methods some companies are considering to revise their approach to certain pension accounting assumptions. The Commission recently consulted with companies and accounting firms on two different approaches—single weighted-average and disaggregated or “spot rate.” “After considering their specific facts and circumstances, we have ...
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Blog
CPAs Launch Research to Push Data Analytics in Audit
Image: The AICPA and Rutgers Business School haved formed a data analytics research initiative to demonstrate how the use of data analytics can advance the public accounting profession. According to Rutgers professor Miklos Vasarhelyi, the initiative’s two shared goals are “to examine how audit objectives might be achieved more effectively ...
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Blog
Steven Cohen Preparing Latest Constitutional Challenge to SEC's APs
The next constitutional challenge to the SEC's administrative proceedings process may be the most high-profile one to date. Lawyers for Steven A. Cohen confirmed that the SAC Capital founder intends to mount such a challenge if ongoing settlement talks are not successful.
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Blog
Revised Ofcom Guidelines Could Mean Higher Penalties
Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the U.K. communications industry, this month published updated penalty guidelines, which were last revised in 2011. The new guidelines give Ofcom greater flexibility to impose higher penalties for non-compliance. “Companies should therefore take immediate steps to assess and reduce such potential exposure ...
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Blog
Marsh Risk Consulting Names Cyber-Security Expert
Marsh, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has appointed Jim Holtzclaw as senior vice president of cyber-security consulting and advisory services at Marsh Risk Consulting (MRC). In his new role, Holtzclaw will work with a team of experts to implement MRC’s cyber-security consulting strategy, capabilities, and services in North ...
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Blog
SEC Settles Insider Case Based on Credit Card Sales Data
The SEC announced a partial settlement today in an unusual insider trading case that it brought earlier this year against Bonan Huang and Nan Huang -- two former employees in the fraud department at Capital One Financial Corp. The SEC alleges that the men made over $2.8 million in illegal ...
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Blog
SEC's Aguilar Looks Back at Seven Years of Progress
SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar will depart the SEC at the end of this month after serving as a commissioner for over seven years. With his last day at the SEC quickly approaching, Commissioner Aguilar posted an interesting statement on the SEC's website this week in which he shared some ...
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Blog
Reform Starts at the Top for FIFA
Image: You might think in today’s corporate world “tone at the top” would be so well worn that you need not repeat it. Yet, tone at the top apparently did warrant repeating for former FIFA head Sepp Blatter. Earlier this week, Blatter announced he would fight the eight-year suspension placed ...
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Blog
Treasury Amends Russia and Ukraine Sanctions List
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control yesterday designated and identified 34 new individuals and entities under four executive orders related to Russia and Ukraine. The updated sanctions list also provides several new lessons for compliance officers.
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Blog
FinCEN Fines First Card Club for Bank Secrecy Act Violations
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week announced its first settlement with, and assessment against, a “card club” gaming establishment for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The settlement and FinCEN’s assessment requires Oaks Card Club to pay a fine of $650,000 for willful violations of the BSA.
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Blog
Kindred Names General Counsel
Kindred Healthcare, a healthcare services company, has appointed Joseph Landenwich as general counsel, in addition to his current role as corporate secretary. He will assume the role following the retirement of M. Suzanne Riedman, general counsel and chief diversity officer, effective Jan. 31, 2016.
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Blog
UHY Elects New Chair
UHY, the international accounting and consultancy network, this month elected Bernard Fay as its new chairman, following 17 years as a UHY board director. With Fay’s election, the UHY network will be led for the first time by a director from outside its founding countries, the United States and ...